Saturday, July 29, 2017

I will find beauty.I will hunt for itand force myself to see.These lilies, for example, still freshfrom my daughter’s combinationbat mitzvah/quinceanera.I will not see them as vulvasready to grab.I will not focus onhow all of them are white.If not these flowers, trees.Or wren, rocks, fountains,sidewalks bright with children’s chalk.Surely something can force my eyesfrom images of swastikasand “Die Nigger” on buildings,can make our broken country turn the other way.There must be beauty fierce enough to save us.

We just recently slithered past the six month marker and all
I can say is HOW. How is it already six months? How is it only six months. Stop
the ride. I want to get off.

Claws out, kittens. This is about to get bumpy

This week began with Sean Spicer taking his podium and walking,
leaving millions concerned with
Melissa McCarthy’s career, following the
appointment of Scaramucci (cue a thousand Queen jokes) the “Mooch” (I can’t
make this stuff up) as the White House Communications Director. He then
proceeded to delete a whole
host of old tweets in some sort of disturbing version of “transparency.”

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Jared “My Daddy’s a Criminal
Too” Kushner spent two hours with congressional investigators during which time
he
claimed all his actions were proper and he did not collude with the
Russians. So pretty much he’s lying. And then the internet mocked his wife
because an old tweet of hers misquoting Albert Einstein made the rounds.

I know. It’s top tier petty to enjoy this but honestly I despise
this woman so I’m gonna enjoy it.

Then the rumor mill started really churning when DOUCHE said
he was thinking about replacing Jeff Sessions with Rudy Giuliani which I
suspect is a giant ruse to get Jeff, who recused himself from the Russian
investigation, to resign. Not to mention Guiliani as the head of the DOJ seems
in many ways even WORSE than sessions when it comes to horrifying ideas about
people of color. So while DOUCHE wouldn't commit to
firing Sessions he said he's very mad at him (insert toddler with a temper tantrum
here). Sessions tried to kiss and make up by DOUCHE wasn’t having it. Now why
is this important? Because if DOUCHE goes ahead and makes Giuliani the AG he
can fire Mueller and end the Russian investigation which is where I think this
is probably going to go. I don’t mean to be Debby Downer, kittens but this is
not looking good.

There was even chatter that Rex is on his way out so….CHAOS
REIGNS! (that’s my antichrist joke).

And if that wasn’t chaotic enough DOUCHE held his own little Hitler Youth Rally
at the Boyscout Jamboree in West Virginia during which time he bragged about
winning the election, lambasted the fake news, pissed all over Hillary, mocked
Obama for never going to a Jamboree – which our Dad did go to in 2010 and there
are pictures to prove it – and then to just round out the Hitler image, he
ranted about LOYALTY.

Yeah.

And then Tuesday came and everyone’s favorite “maverick” John "Fuck Health Care" McCain sauntered into the chamber like he’s some kind of fucking hero and voted to
take away everyone’s healthcare….after just having treatment for his inoperable
brain tumor, mind you. The irony is lost on no one. Because only two
Republicans had the balls to vote no (thank you Susan Collins and Lisa
Murkowski – feel free to take that Texas piece of swine Blake Farenthold up on
that duel
suggestion. Aim for his crotch, ladies. Update: Collins later got caught on
a hot mike calling him unattractive, so…) and then Mike Pence broke the tie and
just like that health care died. Here’s
the breakdown on who voted what.

The only thing we can do is hope to god since this is a
preliminary vote that every American everywhere, I’m looking at you Trump
supporters, light up the phones of every senator who voted Yes. The next 24
hours are crucial. Because, Trumpers, they have rightly and completely fucked
you too. I just hope you realize this before you’re dead.

I’m not gonna lie. I’m pretty upset right now. There are
people that matter to me that I am very worried about.

So what happens now? The Senate will have 20 hours of
debate, evenly split between the two sides so that they can bring up issues, amendments,
horrors, shit shows, germane to the bill. Then something “fun” called
vote-a-rama is gonna happen at which point they’ll vote to just repeal , which
will fail and then they’ll vote to replace. That requires 60 votes. Chances are
good the “skinny repeal” will be up which repeals the individual mandate,
employer mandate and the tax on medical devices. You keeping up, kittens? Good, go call your reps.

Wednesday we woke to find out that for the 1000th
time Republicans have proven that they do not know how to govern. They repealed
the repeal (again not making this up). Confused, kittens? Me too. Basically all
the senators did yesterday was bring the bill that was passed in the House to
the senate. Tuesday night our hardworking nincompoops brought to the floor
their most complete version of the repeal/replace plan. Because that piece of
crap legislation that would allow for junk insurance to prosper was not
assessed by the Congressional Budget Office, it needed 60 votes to pass.

Guess how many votes it got, kittens?

Forty-motherfucking- three.

I’ll wait while you laugh at how freaking incompetent
Republicans are.

Finished? Okay. Then
DOUCHE got on twitter and blasted Murkowski because she has a soul and

he’s
bitterly jealous.

Now the senators need to vote on a different repeal – one that
is repeal ONLY (no replace). Basically they’re just going to deny people
coverage. And guess what? THAT didn’t pass either! It needed a simple majority
and instead was vote No 54-45. Seven Republicans voted No.

The fact that only SEVEN republicans are okay with killing
people is revolting.

So now we’re up to choice number 3 which leaves much of our
Dad’s law in place. They’ll roll back the mandate that most people have
insurance and a tax on medical devices.

While this was happening, DOUCHE went on his twitter account
and said that transgendered people were no longer allowed to serve in the
military because of the “tremendous costs and disruption”

But not a burden. I was pleased to see
#TransRightsAreHumanRights trending as moral outrage caught fire and this was one of
my favorites:

But seriously kittens, I think it’s important to understand
that this is not something that down the road could hurt people. This is
something that IS hurting people right now.
Aside from denying their humanity DOUCHE is denying them an income,
access to health care and retirement. He is taking their jobs.

So why would he do this? Good question, kittens. Turns out that House Republicans put together a gross bill that includes DOUCHE's border wall. There was in-fighting among defense hawks that wanted a ban on Pentagon funded sex reassignment surgery and House GOPers that were against the ban. So the hawks turned to DOUCHE. So he turned to Twitter to debase humans.

And then during a press conference in order to stop the
press from asking about the transgender ban, Sarah “DOUCHE is my King” Huckabee
Sanders, read a letter from a kid named pickle who loves Trump. I AM NOT
KIDDING.

Hot take: Pickle is actually DOUCHE. He wrote the letter
himself. In crayon.

On Thursday, to follow up on DOUCHE’s tweets about
transgendered service people, the DOJ filed court papers saying that Title VII
doesn’t apply to sexual orientation discrimination. This is alarming for a
number of reasons – the DOJ isn’t involved in the case and more importantly
doesn’t usually take part in legal issues with private businesses. Now Title
VII does cover sex discrimination based on stereotypes which is often what is
invoked when there are cases of sexual orientation discrimination. The DOJ is
saying that is not the case. Last month
the seventh circuit was the first federal court to rule that it DOES apply to
sexual orientation. The second circuit is hearing the case of Zarda vs High
Altitude. If the second circuit follows the seventh it will rule that Title VII
does cover orientation. If it rules that it does not, the Supreme Court is
going to step in because it abhors a circuit split – different laws applying to
different parts of the country. Then maybe we can end this once and for all and
it will rule that Title VII does cover sexual orientation.

Did you enjoy your law lesson, kittens? You’re welcome. I
learned it all from this amazing
woman.

The Pentagon fired back that no one was going anywhere and nothing had changed.

In one small bit of good news the House approved
bipartisan sanctions against Russia (and Iran and North Korea) while
limiting DOUCHE’s ability to waive them. Putin is spitting mad. And while all
of this is going on, Sessions is doubling down on sanctuary cities, Trump is
forcing him to change his address to “Under the Bus” and North Korea is
probably going to have a missile that can reach the US in….oh about a year. At
least if these are the end times, it looks like they won’t last very long.

His approval rating is down to 40% and that includes states
he won in. Fuck you, Pennsylvania. Too little, too late.

Then the Mooch started talking about how Bannon sucks his own cock.
I"m not kidding kittens. He literally said this.
This is our government now.

But let’s get back to this Healthcare Bill because that is way more important than toxic masculinity running the White House. After all it’s
another day so another opportunity to screw over poor people. It is, after all,
the Republican way.

Now that we’re on our THIRD attempt at a vote, what’s going
up is being called the Skinny Repeal. They’re starting with cutting the
mandates that people, you know, have health insurance and that employers give
their employees, you know, FUCKING health insurance. Oh and also fuck you to
maternity care AND planned parenthood. Even the insurance lobbyist said this
was bad news.

In the dead of the night, kittens, something incredible
happened. The skinny repeal STILL FAILED! You’re not surprised though are you?
You know, as we all know, as even THEY know that the GOP cannot govern. So what does this mean? More than likely the
vote to repeal and replace the ACA is dead.

Ding dong the bill is dead!

Front and center in all of this had been John McCain who
after receiving a brain cancer diagnosis returned to the Senate to ceremoniously
vote to repeal and replace and then voted No in the end. The whole country (and
possibly parts of the world) are losing their minds. People are calling it the
McCain Moment. The post had an article
saying “The night John McCain killed the GOP’s healthcare fight.”

So while everyone – and I mean everyone because women are
tripping all over themselves to thank McCain which honestly is PEAK white
feminism – I mean you can’t even acknowledge your fellow sisters? What the what?

Take a minute to thank these women.

But more importantly, take a minute to thank the all the
activists that went to DC, that were arrested and slept in their wheelchairs
and never stopped fighting for all our rights.

This is Stephanie Woodward, who has spina bifida and uses a
wheelchair, being arrested.

Thank her. Thank the
60 others who had the courage to go to DC and refuse to be ignored. Thank
@ADAPT, the disability rights agency for staging this protest.

They are the fucking heroes. YOU are a fucking hero for protesting and calling your Senators. You who turned yourself into a righteous pain in this admin's ass. You did this too. So thank you.

Remember kittens, WE control our government. Not the other way around. Those Senators WORK FOR US.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

The White Truth has been thinking about all the times his whiteness has been tainted. He remembers duels with Black Panther, The Falcon, El Gato Negro, how their blood trickled onto his crisp uniform to untuck a sheet. The White Truth channels all his pain into healing drops. He recites a poem:

The triumph of will may bring the fallen back to our earth, this world of eternal struggle. It is not truth that matters, but victory, reason reserved only for the few. May our lies remain big, our terror a bridge.

The White Truth cries enough tears to deny newsprint its ink. The climate around him changes. Orange liquid lifts from the ground to mix with clouds. It begins to rain. The White Truth feels his eyes burning away. He can’t imagine a world in which he can’t judge what he sees. At the hospital, the press calls. “Don’t worry,” he says. “It was a freak accident, an isolated incident.”

--Daniel M. Shapiro
(from the Chapbook The Orange Menace)

Daniel M. Shapiro is the author of Heavy Metal Fairy Tales (Throwback Books, 2016), How the Potato Chip Was Invented (sunnyoutside press, 2013), and The 44th-Worst Album Ever (NAP Books, 2012). He is a senior poetry editor with Pittsburgh Poetry Review.

About Me

WineDrunk SideWalk: Shipwrecked in TrumpLand wants your poems, fiction, art, photographs etc...anything relating to what is going on in the country since 01.20.17. go from the personal to the universal...previously published work welcome SUBMIT2RESIST winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com